Man holds up church gift shop, then motel, police say

Double robbery

An Athens man failed to keep the sabbath on Sunday, snatching a fistful of cash from the gift shop at St. Joseph's Catholic Church just as Mass was letting out.

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Athens-Clarke police said the man also robbed Foundry Park Inn on the other side of downtown Athens less than three hours later, but was captured shortly afterward near an apartment complex about a block away from the motel.

The service at St. Joseph's, 134 Prince Ave., was just wrapping up when the man wandered into the church gift shop near the sanctuary at about 12:45 p.m. and asked to look at a rosary.

Saying something about being out of a job and desperate, the 31-year-old man threatened the clerk with a pair of scissors and grabbed the cash box, police said. He removed what officers called a small amount of cash - police didn't release the exact amount - walked out, blended in with the crowd of people leaving Mass and disappeared.

A few minutes shy of three hours later, police received an armed robbery report from Foundry Park Inn, 245 E. Dougherty St. where North Avenue splits off to the northeast.

Police broadcast a description of the robber, and an officer spotted him on North Avenue near Willow Street. There was a quick foot chase, but officers caught the man and returned him to the motel, where employees identified him as the robber, police said.

''Our officers formed a perimeter and apprehended him as he was leaving,'' said police Maj. Alan Brown, commander of the Criminal Investigation Division.

A 21-year-old motel clerk told police that the man came into the motel office, asked for the money and forced her from one room to another under the threat of using a knife. Though the robber told the clerk that he had a knife, she told police she did not see one because the robber kept his hand in his pocket.

The clerk told police she gave the robber an undisclosed amount of cash and he walked away.

After arresting the man about a block away on North Avenue, police determined that he also was involved in the robbery at the church.

Marshall Garland Edwards, 31, of 203 Highland Park Drive was arrested and charged with two counts armed robbery and obstruction of a law enforcement officer.

Police said Edwards also may face charges of aggravated assault, involving a razor blade used in the Foundry Park robbery; burglary for entering a Foundry Park Inn office with intent to commit a felony; and kidnapping for ordering the Foundry Park employee from one office to another before robbing her.

''Once he moved (the clerk) from one room to the next, that constitutes kidnapping,'' said Lt. Clarence Holeman, robbery-homicide commander.